The declining role of physicians in biomedical research has been recognized at the national level in many arenas, particularly in Otolaryngology and Communication Disorders. This proposal requests continued funding for the Postdoctoral Research Training Program in the Dept. of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Univ. of Washington. For the past 24 years, this program has established a strong record of graduating successful clinician-researchers for academic programs and a group of PhD scientists who successfully interact with and train clinician scientists. The primary mission of this Residency Program is to recruit, to train, and to graduate candidates for national junior faculty positions who possess the requisite research training and personal commitment to achieve successful and productive academic careers. DESIGN: We accept 3 trainees/year, all of whom have achieved MD degrees; approximately 30% of our trainees have MD/PhD or MD/MPH degrees. Research and clinical training are fully integrated throughout the training process. Support by this T32 Program allows each Resident-trainee to have 1 or 2 years of dedicated research training without clinical responsibility early in the residency and an additional optional Research Fellowship year following clinical training. The program is defined by a combination of: 1) intensive research experience early in the residency; 2) sustained research exposure throughout the clinical years of training; 3) post-residency clinical scholar fellowships; 4) a cadre of young faculty clinician- research role models; and 5) outstanding fundamental and clinical scientist mentors. Trainees are encouraged to consider the full breadth of the UW Health Sciences Complex to identify the ideal mentored laboratory to support their area of research. The dominant areas of research are auditory neuroscience, tumor cell biology and clinical epidemiology and outcomes research. Among the many training-related activities is a structured tutorial on research grant proposal development culminating in an application to the Academy of OTOHNS Foundation or similar funding source. Trainees performing two contiguous years are required to submit an individual NRSA proposal. RELEVANCE: Fundamental to our training program is the belief the general populace of the United States has a greater potential to benefit from advances in biomedical research if well-trained, medically knowledgeable specialist-physicians participate actively in the process. In attempting to achieve balanced representation, we make a specific effort to identify and train qualified minority candidates.